The Help By Kathryn Stockett (Finished)

The book that I just finished is The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I all ready wrote a review for this book before I finished it so now I will explain the rest. The story is based in 1962 in the Deep South were there is segregation. They story is told in different perspectives from the African American maids to their full of themselves white employers to the one woman who thinks she can make a change. Aibileen is raising her 17^th white child.  Her current child is Mae Mobley, Elizabeth Leefolt’s little girl. One day during bridge club the topic of the Africans Americans have “dirty diseases” and how the help should have different bathrooms. Ms. Skeeter comes to the kitchen later and asks what Aibileen thinks of the bathroom situation. Later when Ms. Skeeter gets a job as writer of the house-cleaning column for the local paper she turns to Aibileen for help. As time go’s on Aibileen and Skeeter get more comfortable things that are usually kept private between African Americans and white people, slip out. So when Skeeter gets an approval to try and write a story about “the help” from a job she applied for in New York Aibileen actually thinks about letting her self be interviewed and later on says yes. When Aibileen and Miss. Skeeter start their interview things are tough because Aibileen isn’t really comfortable talking about Mrs. Leefolt with Miss. Skeeter because they are friends, but soon becomes comfortable. When the editor from New York calls and says that the story will only work if there are at least twelve maids. This becomes a challenge when only Aibileen and Minny Jackson (Aibileen’s best friend) have agreed to share their stories. When a shooting and then a terrible injustice happens in the community more maids what to help make a difference. When the story gets published and is on TV it brings Jackson, Mississippi into chaos. Some of the women especially Mrs. Hilly (the meanest white lady) figure out the fact that the book is about them. When Mrs. Hilly convinces Ms. Leefolt to fire Aibileen it seems like the end but is not. This is a quick summary of The Help.

Even though this story is fiction, there were real African-Americans who wanted to make a change and real people like Ms. Skeeter who were really brave to try and make changes. I talked to my grandpa who lived in Texas during the time of segregation. He said that 1962 was during the time when integration was happening. He said that there were race riots, which were demonstrations for rights. He said that these demonstrations were still going on in the 1990’s. He also told me about the Klux Clan who were white men who burned crosses on people’s yards and hated African-Americans. They even went as far as hanging Africans-Americans and people who believed in their rights. He also talked to me about how that in most clubs famous African-Americans performed in they couldn’t actually have sat watched the performances. Hopefully this gave you an idea about how brave people would have been to try and a difference during the time of segregation.

 I think that this book is really amazing and well written but I don’t think that children under 12 should read this because of the topic of segregation and the consequences that could happen if you did something to try and make things equal. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a though provoking novel about change.